A comprehensive step-by-step guide to the most popular music production package around, with colour screengrabs throughout.

Introduction; Understanding the Hardware options for Pro Tools LE; The Digi 002 and the Command|8; Understanding Pro Tools LE Software; Getting Started; Recording MIDI and using Virtual Instruments; Recording Audio; Editing; Mixing; The Outro: Final Mixdown, Burning to CD, and Backup; Appendix 1 Transferring Projects; Appendix 2 DV Toolkit for LE; Jargon Buster

Mike Collins (Author)
Mike Collins is a studio musician, recording engineer and producer with more than 30 years experience of making records. He has many credits on UK chart singles and albums, for radio and TV broadcasts, advertising jingles and movie scores.

Mike was awarded a BSc Degree in Electroacoustics-with-Music from Salford University in 1979, became a Member of the Audio Engineering Society in 1980, and was awarded an MSc Degree in Music Information Technology, with Distinction, in 1989.

After graduating, he spent 14 months working on transducer designs for Standard Telephones and Cables (STC), followed by a couple of 6-month stints as a Planning & Installation Engineer for Neve Electronics and as a Film Sound Consultant for Dolby Labs, before joining Yamaha's London R & D Studio in 1986 as Senior Recording Engineer and Music Technology Specialist.

Working freelance since 1988, Mike has regularly reviewed music and audio software and hardware and written about a variety of audio and music production topics, with more than 2000 articles and reviews published in Pro Sound News Europe, Future Music, Computer Music, Macworld, MacUser, Personal Computer World, Sound On Sound, AudioMedia, Studio Sound, Electronic Musician, EQ, MIX and similar publications.

In parallel with this, Mike established a career throughout the 1990's as a studio musician, MIDI programmer, recording engineer and producer working on Top 40 albums and singles in the leading London recording studios including Abbey Road, Mayfair, Townhouse, Eden, Strongroom and Sony Whitfield Street Studios, CTS and Lansdowne Studios. In 1997, Mike set up a project studio equipped with a high-end Pro Tools system and has since been involved in everything from dance remixes to TV ads, background and featured music for TV and video, album editing and compilation, and, since 1999, producing jazz, blues and soul recordings. Notable projects include working on music for a Deutsche Bank promotional video, co-production credits on Ayetoro, an experimental jazz/Afrobeat album, and, in 2010, working as a freelance audio transfer engineer at Iron Mountain's studio facility in Slough, helping to digitize Universal Music's vast library of master tape recordings. Most recently, Mike has set up a 'boutique' record label to release recordings he has produced - see http://rudenoterecords.com/author/rudenoterecords/